Privacy Statement and FAQs
Privacy Information
This survey and your personal data
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) and ORIMA Research is inviting you to take part in this survey.
The survey is part of an international study led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), on people living with chronic conditions. The survey is called the PaRIS survey. Its aim is to compare and improve patient care across different countries and regions.
For more information visit http://www.oecd.org/health/paris/
The information below explains who is conducting the survey, what data will be collected about you, how the data will be used, who the data will be shared with, and what your legal rights are.
Who is conducting the survey?
The survey is being carried out by the Commission and ORIMA Research, on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care (the Department).
Which other organisations are involved?
The OECD has appointed an international consortium (the PaRIS-SUR Consortium) to develop and conduct the survey on its behalf, in close collaboration with the Commission, the Department, ORIMA Research, Ipsos MORI and the Nivel Group.
For more information about the PaRIS-SUR Consortium, visit their website at: www.paris-sur.org
For more information about the OECD, the PaRIS Survey, and their privacy statement, visit the OECD’s website at: https://www.oecd.org/privacy/
Why is my practice being invited to participate?
All GP practices in Australia who are accredited and use patient electronic records are eligible to take part in the PaRIS survey. A range of approaches have been used to contact practices about participating in the PaRIS survey. This includes:
- Sharing information about the survey through organisations such as Primary Health Networks, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and other peak organisations
- Contacting GPs directly using publicly available practice information
- Contacting GPs on existing lists of healthcare professionals with an interest in participating in research through Ekas (social and market research recruitment agency).
Who are my contact details shared with?
When you register for the survey, your practice will be asked to confirm the contact details of your practice, a survey co-ordinator, and a nominated person to complete the provider survey. This information is stored securely in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (the Privacy Act) on the Practice Portal.
ORIMA Research will be able to access these details for the purpose of providing survey support and sending reminders. These details will not be used for any purpose outside of this survey and will be destroyed once they are no longer required for the survey. More information about ORIMA Research and its privacy policy can be found at https://orima.com.au/ .
Do I have to take part?
Taking part in the survey is voluntary and you can withdraw from the survey at any time.
What will I be asked to do?
We are asking you to complete two components of the survey:
- Complete a provider survey – which can be completed by a GP, practice nurse or practice manager. It asks questions about the services and care the practice provides and takes about 20 minutes.
- Share the patient survey with your patients – this survey is completed by patients of participating providers who have visited the practice in the last 6 months. It asks questions about their experiences of care with their GP practice and general questions about their health.
What happens to my answers?
Your answers will be collected using an online platform. Your practice’s survey responses will be linked to the data your patients provide using a survey identification number. The data will be analysed by ORIMA Research on behalf of the OECD, the Commission, and the Department. Any published results will be aggregated and fully anonymised, which means no individual or practice will be identifiable. Data will not be reported if the patient or practice can be reasonably identified based on their characteristics.
You will be able to access the aggregated data provided by your patients on the Practice Portal for the purpose of supporting continuous quality improvement.
How will my personal information be kept secure?
ORIMA Research takes information security responsibilities very seriously. They will take precautions to ensure your information is protected from loss, theft, or misuse. Security precautions include appropriate physical security of offices and controlled and limited access to computer systems. Strict measures are taken to ensure any personal information is securely stored and seen only by the personnel directly involved in the project. Regular audits are conducted of ORIMA’s information security, in line with the International Standard for Information Security ISO 27001.
Does this online survey use cookies or similar code?
Some online surveys collect information using ‘cookies’. A cookie is a piece of information that an internet website sends to your browser when you access information at that site. Cookies are either stored in memory (session cookies) or placed on your hard disk (persistent cookies).
ORIMA Research only uses persistent cookies for the convenience of users when returning to the survey website. Blocking these cookies does not hinder the operation of the survey. Upon closing your browser, the session cookie set by this website is destroyed and no Personal Information is maintained which might identify you should you visit our website later.
ORIMA Research may also automatically capture information about your operating system, display settings and browser type, including the IP address, to ensure that the survey questionnaire is delivered in a form suited to the software your computer or mobile device is using. ORIMA Research does not capture any other information from your computer.
How long will you hold my personal data?
ORIMA Research will only hold your personal data for as long as is necessary to support the project and findings. In practice, this means that once we have reported the anonymous findings, we will securely remove your personal data from our systems. Generally, this information is deleted within 6 months of survey completion. However, some information that identifies the practice may need to be retained to allow practices to continue to access their patient data on the Practice Portal.
Where will your personal data be held and processed?
- Contact data used to invite you to take part in this survey will be stored in data centres and servers within Australia.
- All anonymised online survey data will be collected by ORIMA Research and stored in a data centre and server within Australia.
- Anonymised, aggregated data for each country will be stored by the PaRIS Survey Consortium and OECD in data centres and servers within the UK/European Union.
- The Commission, the Department, and ORIMA Research will have access to the anonymised results of the survey and will store these data in data centres and servers within Australia.
Has the survey been approved by an ethics committee?
Yes. The ORIMA Research Human Research Ethics Committee has reviewed and approved this research based on the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007) – [HREC reference number: 0012023]. This Statement has been developed to protect the interests of people who agree to participate in human research studies.
Your rights under the Privacy Act
- You have the right to access your personal data within the limited period that ORIMA Research holds it (i.e. until the contact information is destroyed).
- Taking part in this survey is entirely voluntary and is done so with your consent. You have the right to withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal data at any time. However, once the data are analysed it is not possible to withdraw this data from the anonymised outputs.
- You also have the right to rectify any incorrect or out-of-date personal data about you which we may hold.
- If you want to exercise your rights, please contact the ORIMA Research helpdesk by email via PaRISSurvey@orima.com or by telephone on 1800 806 590 between the hours of 8:30am and 5pm AEST, Monday to Friday.
- We must generally respond to requests in relation to your rights within 30 days, although there are some exceptions to this.
- You can make a complaint to ORIMA Research by contacting Tyler Forrester, Privacy and Ethics Manager at ORIMA Research, via email (Tyler.Forrester@orima.com) or telephone (03 9526 9000).
- You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner if you have concerns on how we have processed the data. You can contact them at enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Under what legislation is my data protected?
In Australia, the collection of personal data (information about an identifiable, living person) is protected by the Privacy Act 1988 (the Privacy Act).
The Privacy Act is the principal piece of Australian legislation protecting the handling of personal information about individuals. This includes the collection, use, storage and disclosure of personal information in the federal public sector and in the private sector.
Your rights under the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act will be respected. When your data are collected, it will be de-identified and handled according to this legislation.
All personal information is held securely. Personal information will not be disclosed to organisations that are not identified in this document unless required under Australian law or a tribunal/court order.
Once your de-identified data are provided to Ipsos MORI and Nivel group, it will be kept private under the EU General Data Protection Regulation, because Ipsos MORI and Nivel group are based in Europe. This regulation applies to data processing activities in Europe, where the international Consortium and the OECD are based. The General Data Protection Legislation is a European Union law that governs the way in which countries in Europe can use, process, and store personal data.
How can I contact the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care about this survey and/or the data collected by it?
You can contact the Commission via email: parisinitiative@health.gov.au or post: Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care GPO Box 5480 Sydney NSW 2001.
© Australian Commission on Safety
and Quality in Health Care 2023
